Today's Trivia and What Happened on October 31

Why don't zombies eat brains with their fingers?

Why don't zombies eat brains with their fingers? Close Large View

They like to eat the fingers separately.

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Quote: You cannot shake hands with a clenched fist. - Indira Gandhi

Quote: You cannot shake hands with a clenched fist. - Indira Gandhi Close Large View

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Holidays

Halloween

All Hallow's Eve.

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What Happened On

Pope Admits the Earth Revolves Around the Sun

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Pope Admits the Earth Revolves Around the Sun

October 31, 1992

Pope John Paul II announces that the Catholic Church erred by imprisoning Galileo Galilei for his belief that the Earth revolved around the Sun. Galileo was forced to recant his belief under the threat of torture and was sentenced to house arrest for the remainder of his life. The Church's decision was the result of a 13-year investigation into the matter.
In 1615, The Roman Inquisition had determined that heliocentrism (Earth revolves around the Sun) contradicted the Holy Scripture, citing Biblical passages such as:
Psalm 93:1, 96:10, and 1 Chronicles 16:30 - "the world is firmly established, it cannot be moved."
Psalm 104:5 - "the Lord set the earth on its foundations; it can never be moved."
Ecclesiastes 1:5 - "And the sun rises and sets and returns to its place."
Galileo's Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems (1632) supported heliocentrism and appeared to attack Pope Urban VIII. For this indiscretion, Pope Urban VIII had him brought before the Roman Inquisition. Under threat of torture, Galileo recanted. He was sentenced to house arrest for life and publication of any of his works was forbidden. The Church also placed a ban all books that taught heliocentrism, which remained in place until 1758.
As late as 1990, the Church still showed support for Galileo's prosecution as evidenced in a speech by Cardinal Ratzinger (who later became Pope Benedict XVI) in which he stated, "Her (the Roman Catholic Church) verdict against Galileo was rational and just, and the revision of this verdict can be justified only on the grounds of what is politically opportune."

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The Death of Halloween - Boy Dies From Poison Candy

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The Death of Halloween - Boy Dies From Poison Candy

October 31, 1974

An 8-year-old Texas boy dies after eating cyanide-laced Halloween candy. The boy's father Ronald Clark O'Bryan was later convicted and executed for the murder. He had laced Pixie Stix with cyanide and passed them out to children, including his 8-year-old-son and 5-year-old daughter. O'Bryan's son died Halloween night after eating the Pixie Stix. The medical examiner guessed that it was cyanide poisoning due to the smell of almonds coming from the boy's mouth and the other Pixie Stix were collected before anyone else ate them. Another boy had tried to eat one, but couldn't get it open because they had been stapled shut after being tampered with and he wasn't able to remove the staple.
O'Bryan was deeply in debt and had taken out life insurance policies on his children shortly before Halloween.
This event has become known as "The Death of Halloween" since many parents stopped allowing their children to participate in trick-or-treating after this incident.

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Vietnam War - Operation Rolling Thunder Ended

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Vietnam War - Operation Rolling Thunder Ended

October 31, 1968

U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson announces that the U.S. will cease the bombing of North Vietnam, just before the Presidential election. This would bring and end to 3½ years of Operation Rolling Thunder. The campaign had cost more than 900 American aircraft, 818 pilots dead or missing, and hundreds in captivity. Nearly 120 Vietnam People's Air Force planes were also destroyed in air combat, accidents, or by friendly fire. According to U.S. estimates, 182,000 North Vietnamese civilians had been killed and 22,000 Chinese support personnel were also casualties of the bombing campaign.

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First NASA Astronaut to Die in Training

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First NASA Astronaut to Die in Training

October 31, 1964

While Theodore Freeman was piloting a T-38 jet trainer from St. Louis to Houston, a goose flew into the port-side air intake causing the engine to flame out. He attempted to land on the Houston runway, but realized he was too short and might hit military housing, so he banked away from the runway, and ejected. Freeman's parachute did not deploy in time, and he died upon impact with the ground.

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Mount Rushmore

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Mount Rushmore

October 31, 1941

The Mount Rushmore memorial is completed. Work had begun in 1927 by sculpture Gutzon Borglum who died in March of 1941 leaving his son to complete the task. The sculpture features the 60-foot (18 m) tall heads of U.S. Presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln. These presidents were chosen by Borglum to represent the nation's birth, growth, development, and preservation, respectively.

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Martin Luther Starts the Protestant Reformation

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Martin Luther Starts the Protestant Reformation

October 31, 1517

The German religious reformer Martin Luther starts the Protestant reformation when he nails his 95 theses against the corruption of the papacy in Rome to the door of the castle church in Wittenberg. In 1521, he was excommunicated from the Roman Catholic Church by Pope Leo X for challenging the church's doctrines and went into hiding. October 31st is commemorated annually as Reformation Day.

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Mighty Mouse Sniffs Cocaine?

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Mighty Mouse Sniffs Cocaine?

October 31, 1987

Claims are made by the American Family Association that the cartoon mouse sniffed cocaine in today's episode of the Saturday morning cartoon. The producers claimed that he was sniffing flowers that had been crushed by a bully.

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First African American to Play in a Regular-Season NBA Game

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First African American to Play in a Regular-Season NBA Game

October 31, 1950

Earl Lloyd with the Washington Capitols against the Rochester Royals. They lost 78-70.
Lloyd was an All–American player for West Virginia State University, where he helped lead the team to an undefeated season in 1948. Lloyd also helped lead the Syracuse Nationals to the 1955 NBA Championship and was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 2003.
Prior to the NBA, Lloyd played with the Harlem Globetrotters.

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Nevada

October 31, 1864

Nevada becomes the 36th state.

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Birthdays

Michael Landon as Little Joe Michael Landon as Little Joe

Michael Landon as Little Joe Michael Landon as Little Joe
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Michael Landon (Eugene Maurice Orowitz)

Born October 31, 1936 d. 1991

American actor. TV: Bonanza (1959-73, Little Joe Cartwright), Little House on the Prairie (1974-83, Charles Ingalls), and Highway to Heaven (1984-89, Jonathan Smith). Film: I Was a Teenage Werewolf (1957, title role).
Landon was on the cover of TV Guide 22 times, second only to Lucille Ball.

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Dale Evans

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Dale Evans (Lucille Wood Smith)

Born October 31, 1912 d. 2001

American actress, cowgirl. Movie partner and wife of Roy Rogers. She also wrote the song Happy Trails. In 1995, she was inducted into the National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame. Outspoken about her Christianity, she wrote a number of religious and inspirational books and she and Roy Rogers performed with the Billy Graham Crusades, singing gospel songs.
When she was 14, she eloped and had a son when she was 15. Early in her career, after leaving her husband, she claimed that her son was her brother, whom she was caring for.
TV: The Roy Rogers Show (1951-57).

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Ethel Waters

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First Black Person on Television

Ethel Waters

Born October 31, 1896 d. 1977

American actress, singer. She became the first black performer on television when NBC broadcast The Ethel Waters Show (1939). She was first black star of a TV dramatic series (1950-51, Beulah) and the first black actress nominated for an Emmy (1961, for an episode of Route 66). She was the second black actress nominated for an Academy Award. The song Stormy Weather was composed for her by Harold Arlen.

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Modern electric light based on Swan's patent Modern electric light based on Swan's patent

Modern electric light based on Swan's patent Modern electric light based on Swan's patent
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Invented Incandescent Light Bulb 20 Years Before Edison

Joseph Wilson Swan

Born October 31, 1828 d. 1914

English inventor, chemist. Known for his development of dry photographic plates, he also invented a carbon element electric light (1860), which was the basis of Thomas Edison's light bulb 20 years later. Swan patented his incandescent light in 1879, a year before Edison patented his.

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Vermeer's The Milkmaid Vermeer's The Milkmaid

Vermeer's The Milkmaid Vermeer's The Milkmaid
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Johannes Vermeer

Born October 31, 1632 d. 1675

Dutch painter. Known for his realistic scenes of serene and harmonious domestic life.

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Vanilla Ice (Robert Van Winkle)

Born October 31, 1967

American singer.

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Larry Mullen

Born October 31, 1961

Irish drummer, with U2. Music: Sunday Bloody Sunday (1983) and With You Or Without You (1987, #1).

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John Candy

Born October 31, 1950 d. 1994

Canadian Emmy-winning actor. Film: Planes, Trains and Automobiles (1987) and Uncle Buck (1989, title role). TV: Second City TV, and Saturday Night Live.

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Jane Pauley

Born October 31, 1950

American newscaster.

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Shorter (left) during the 1972 Olympics Shorter (left) during the 1972 Olympics

Shorter (left) during the 1972 Olympics Shorter (left) during the 1972 Olympics
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Frank Shorter

Born October 31, 1947

American marathon runner. He won Olympic gold for the marathon in 1972 Summer Olympics and Silver in the 1976 Summer Olympics. He is credited with helping start the 1970s running craze in the U.S.

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Deidre Hall

Born October 31, 1947

American actress. TV: Days of Our Lives (Dr. Marlena Evans).

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David Ogden Stiers

Born October 31, 1942 d. 2018

American actor. TV: M*A*S*H (1977-83, Charles Emerson Winchester).

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Dan Rather

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Dan Rather

Born October 31, 1931

American Emmy-winning newscaster. TV: CBS Evening News and 60 Minutes.
"Kenneth, what is the frequency?" In 1986 Rather was assaulted by a man who repeatedly demanded, "Kenneth, what is the frequency?" In 1997, the assailant was identified as William Tager. Tager believed the television networks were beaming signals into his brain and he wanted to know the frequency they were using so that he could block it. In 1994, Tager killed a stagehand while trying to force his way into an NBC studio with a weapon. During this investigation it was uncovered the he was the attacker of Rather years earlier.

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Michael Collins

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Michael Collins

Born October 31, 1930 d. 2021

American NASA astronaut. Collins flew the Apollo 11 command module around the Moon in 1969 while his crewmates, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, became the first men on the Moon.

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Barbara Bel Geddes

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Barbara Bel Geddes

Born October 31, 1922 d. 2005

American Emmy-winning actress. TV: Dallas (1978-90, Miss Ellie). Broadway: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955, Maggie). She starred in an episode of TV's Alfred Hitchcock Presents, "Lamb to the Slaughter", in which she played a housewife *SPOILER ALERT* who killed her husband by bludgeoning him to death with a frozen leg of lamb, cooking the murder weapon, and then serving it to the investigating police.
Film: I Remember Mama (1948, Katrin Hanson) and Vertigo (1958, Midge).

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Robert Calvin Hubbard

Born October 31, 1900 d. 1977

American athlete. Hubbard was the first person elected to three sports halls of fame: National Football Hall of Fame (1962), Football Hall of Fame (1963), and the National Baseball Hall of Fame (1976).

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Chiang Kai-shek

Born October 31, 1887 d. 1975

Chinese general, head of state (1927-75). He led the Allied forces in China during World War II.

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Juliette Low

Born October 31, 1860 d. 1927

American woman, founder of the Girl Scouts of America (1912).

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Benoît Fourneyron

Born October 31, 1802 d. 1867

French inventor, "Father of the Turbine." He designed the first practical water turbine (1827).

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John Keats

Born October 31, 1795 d. 1821

English poet. Writings: Endymion (1818) and Eve of St. Agnes (1820).

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Clement XIV

Born October 31, 1705 d. 1774

Italian religious leader, 249th Pope (1769-74). He was pressured into issuing a brief abolishing the Jesuits (1773).

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Deaths

Sean Connery

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Sean Connery (Thomas Connery)

Died October 31, 2020 b. 1930

Scottish Oscar-Tony-winning actor, producer. "Bond, James Bond", starring in seven James Bond films between 1962 and 1983. He finished 3rd in the 1953 Mr. Universe tall man's division.

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Theodore Cordy "Ted" Freeman

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First NASA Astronaut to Die in Training

Theodore Cordy "Ted" Freeman

Died October 31, 1964 b. 1930

American astronaut. Freeman was the first NASA astronaut to die in training (1964). While Freeman was piloting a T-38 jet trainer from St. Louis to Houston, a goose flew into the port-side air intake causing the engine to flame out. He attempted to land on the Houston runway, but realized he was too short and might hit military housing, so he banked away from the runway, and ejected. Freeman's parachute did not deploy in time, and he died upon impact with the ground.

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Harry Houdini

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Harry Houdini (Ehrich Weiss)

Died October 31, 1926 b. 1874

American magician, escape artist, "The Handcuff King." He also made Australia's first successful airplane flight. He died of peritonitis after being punched in the stomach. His will gave all his magic equipment to his brother Theodore Hardeen, who was also a magician and escape artist. The will stipulated that after Hardeen's death the props should be destroyed and burned. However, Hardeen sold much of Houdini's props with many of the pieces ending up in The Houdini Magical Hall of Fame in Niagara Falls, Ontario. The museum burned down in 1995 destroying many of the pieces, thus partially fulfilling Houdini's will.

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Willie McCovey

Died October 31, 2018 b. 1938

American Baseball Hall-of-Famer. He was National League Rookie of Year (1959), led the National League in home runs (1963, 68, 69), and was National League MVP 1969.

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River Phoenix

Died October 31, 1993 b. 1970

American actor. Film: Stand By Me (1986), Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989), and My Own Private Idaho (1991). Phoenix died of an overdose of heroin and cocaine while waiting to perform with his close friend Flea from the Red Hot Chili Peppers onstage at The Viper Room, a Hollywood nightclub partly owned at the time by actor Johnny Depp.

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Federico Fellini

Died October 31, 1993 b. 1920

Italian Oscar-winning director. Film: La Dolce Vita (1959), The Loafers (1953), La Strada (1954, Oscar), (1963, Oscar), and Amarcord (1973, Oscar). The word "paparazzo" is from the name of a character in La Dolce Vita.

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Joseph Papp

Died October 31, 1991 b. 1921

American Pulitzer-winning Shakespearian theatrical producer, director. Considered one of the most influential producers and directors in American theater. He opened The Public Theater, which was the birthplace of both Hair and A Chorus Line.

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Roger Price

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Roger Price

Died October 31, 1990 b. 1918

American humorist. Creator of Droodles (simplified abstract drawings), which launched a TV show in 1954. See Droodles. Frank Zappa used Price's droodle "Ship Arriving Too Late to Save a Drowning Witch" on the cover of an album by the same name.

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John Houseman (Jacques Haussmann)

Died October 31, 1988 b. 1902

American Oscar-winning actor. Film: The Paper Chase (1973, Oscar). TV: He proclaimed in commercials "They make money the old-fashioned way; They earn it."

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Indira Nehru Gandhi

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Indira Nehru Gandhi

Died October 31, 1984 b. 1917

prime minister of India (1966-77, 1980-84). She was killed by two of her own bodyguards. Four months earlier, she had ordered the attack on Golden Temple at Amritsar, the Sikhs' holiest shrine. Hundreds were killed in the attack. The bodyguards who killed her were Sikhs.

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George Halas

Died October 31, 1983 b. 1895

American Football Hall of Famer, player-coach, co-founder of the NFL, and founder of the Chicago Bears. He is the all-time leader in coaching wins (324) and won a record 6 NFL championships. He was also the 1919 Rose Bowl MVP.

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John Luther Long

Died October 31, 1927 b. 1861

American playwright. Writings: Madame Butterfly (1898).

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Elizabeth Harrison

Died October 31, 1927 b. 1849

American educator. Leader in the U.S. kindergarten movement. She organized a series of annual conferences in Chicago (1890s), which led to the founding of what is today the National Parent Teachers Association (PTA).

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Éleuthère Irénée du Pont

Died October 31, 1834 b. 1771

French-born American industrialist. He founded E.I. du Pont Company (1801) in Delaware to manufacture gunpowder.

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